


where the lovelight gleams

by helsinkibaby



Series: Love Story [3]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 16:39:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17124956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Ellie is not a brat. Except for when she can’t see her boyfriend at Christmas.





	where the lovelight gleams

**Author's Note:**

> For Dwayne prides Christmas Prompt list day 15.   
> Also if you’ve not read “we were both young when I first saw you” this will make little or no sense.

Ellie tries to tell herself not to be a brat. She’s not some teenager who sulks because she doesn’t get her own way; she never was that, even when she was a teenager. She’s nineteen years old, a sophomore in college and she’s too old to be in a bad mood just because she can’t see her boyfriend at Christmas. 

She is, however, in a bad mood because she can’t see her boyfriend at Christmas. 

She knows she’s being unreasonable. Since his mom got remarried and moved to Oklahoma, they’ve spent the last couple of Christmases here, away from the family they still have back in Miami. His mom’s brothers and sisters are still there, his sister Lucia is there and after this year, losing Nick’s childhood best friend, she knows they’re thinking a lot more about family. She understands them going to Miami, she really does.

But she loves Nick and she loves Christmas and she had really been looking forward to having the two things together. 

Perhaps sensing her bad mood, her dad takes the boys into town the morning before Christmas Eve, leaving her and her mom to do some Christmas baking. Ellie knows she’s in real trouble when even sugar cookies can’t lift her mood. Her mom, seeming to understand why she’s in such a funk, doesn’t say anything about Nick, just keeps up a steady stream of chatter designed to keep her spirits up. 

It doesn’t really work. 

Maybe her mom senses that too because when the door rings, she gives a sigh of relief. “Why don’t you get that?” she says and despite the phrasing, Ellie knows it’s not a request. She just about keeps back a very teenagery sigh before making her way to the front door and pulling it open, hoping she won’t have to make too much small talk. 

It turns out that she won’t be able to make any sort of talk because when she opens the door, Nick is standing in front of her and she’s so surprised she can’t make any sound at all, just stares at him with her jaw hanging open. 

He gets it straight away, smirks at her. “Ellie Bishop, speechless. Now there’s a first.” 

She does make a sound at that, one that sounds very like a sob and then she’s leaping into his arms. She winds her arms around his neck and he pulls her close, lifts her off her feet and holds her for what seems like a very long time. 

They only break apart when a blast of cold wind makes them both shiver. He loosens his grip on her, sets her down and takes one of her hands in his. “Let’s get in out of this cold... I’m not used to an Oklahoma winter anymore.”

She steps inside, pulls him with her in case he disappears. “Why aren’t you in Florida?” she demands, wrapping her arms around his waist, settling her ear over his heart. 

She feels, rather than sees him shrug. “I should be,” he tells her. “But it’s been a hard year.” Memories of the last time she’d seen him, a role reversal that had her surprising him on one of the worst days of his life, makes sudden tears sting her eyes. “And now it’s Christmas, and I really want to spend it with you.” She looks up at him then and he touches her cheek, runs his thumb up and down it gently. “Your mom said I could stay with you guys. Rumour has it there’s even an ugly Christmas sweater under the tree with my name on it.” He grins suddenly, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of the kitchen. “She also mentioned that I’d be staying in the spare room and that your dad and brothers all have licensed firearms.”

“And also that I’m not such a bad shot myself.” Her mom’s voice has Ellie turning her head and while she sees a smile on her mom’s face, she also sees a flinty look in her eyes that warns Ellie not to try her. 

“Trust me, Mrs B,” Nick says, and the fact that he still can’t call her mom by her first name no matter how many times she tells him to makes them all smile, “I know better than to mess with a Bishop woman.” He gives Ellie’s hip a squeeze before he lets her go, walks over to her mom and gives her a hug, kisses her cheek. 

“You’re just in time, Nick,” her mom says. “The first batch of cookies are almost ready to come out of the oven.” 

Nick’s grin is bright - he loves her mom’s sugar cookies almost as much as she does. “I’ll put my bag upstairs and be right back,” he promises. 

Ellie watches him go and, as she does, her mom comes up beside her, leans in and kisses her cheek. “Make sure you remember what I said about the firearms,” she says. “The boys aren’t ready to be uncles.” 

Ellie’s cheeks flood crimson with heat. “Thanks, Mom,” she says, gets another kiss for her trouble. 

“Merry Christmas, Ellie,” she says and Ellie can’t stop smiling because now it finally is.


End file.
